The story was incredibly exciting. Ron Howard puts you in the capsule with the crew; you get a true sense of how " harrowing" , it must have been. The pace is juxtaposed between anxious , quiet moments ( Marilyn Lovell, as an example ), to the moments where the crew is losing power and oxygen.
The cast is stellar, to say the very least. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris and Gary Sinise all turn in Academy award winning performances. I believe Ed Harris did win an Oscar, as did Kathleen Quinlan for her excellent performance as Marilyn Lovell. My heart truly went out to her in this movie--- she's that good. My all-time favorite 1990s movie, bar none. Highly, highly recommended.